CURATORS’ TEACHING
SUMMIT
Tac(k)tical Teaching:
Strategies for Success in the
Millennial Classroom, part 2
Center for Educational Research and Teaching Innovation - CERTI
Josh comes to your class regularly but sits in the back
and often dozes off, sometimes for the entire class
period. Your response is to:
1. Ignore him as long as he isn’t
bothering anyone else.
2. Catch up with him after class
and ask to meet with him to
discuss the issue.
3. Have his neighbors in class
wake him up.
4. Deduct points on his
participation grade or another
assignment.
5. Call on Josh to answer a
question.
Alternate solutions from tables:
• Ask him in class why he
doesn’t get more sleep
• Move closer to student and
ask a question
• Drop a book loudly
• Depends on the context;
response should vary with the
size and nature of the class
• Generally, do not use a
response that embarrasses a
student
• Use clickers in class to engage
students
• It is the student’s
responsibility to stay awake
Despite a policy of no electronic devices in class in your
syllabus, you are sure that your students are texting at
various times during class. How do you handle this?
1. Ask those who are violating the
policy to leave class.
2. Confiscate cell phones until
class is over.
3. Arrange a meeting with the
“regular offenders” to discuss
the problem.
4. Ignore the texting.
5. Let the class decide on the
ramifications of violating your
policy.
Alternate solutions/observations
from tables:
• Ask students to move to the
back
• Have a policy of “If you can’t see
my cell phone, I can’t see yours”
• Allow for special cases, such as
husband whose wife is ready to
deliver, etc.
• Try to keep students engaged by
moving around lecture hall,
asking questions
• Call on the texter
• If it is in the syllabus, instructor
must do something!
• Interesting finding from one
instructor: 96% of the time it
was the mother texting the
student.
After the first quiz in your class, you are seeing less and less
of Blake, who did poorly on the test. Your response is to:
1. Send an Academic Alert.
2. Send the Alert and also set up
a meeting with the student.
3. Focus on the students who
are attending the class
instead of spending time on
the one who isn’t showing up.
4. Contact the student’s
academic advisor.
5. Drop the student per your
syllabus policy.
Alternate solutions/observations from
tables:
• If it is a student athlete, contact the
coach
• Talk to the student personally
• Personalize the academic alert
• Let advisor know of situation
• Response might depend on class
size and student’s major
• Institute attendance policy with
grade penalty
• Ask other students “what’s up with
...?”
• Instructor who issues an alert
should see all the alerts for that
particular student
• Students that do not come to class
generally do not respond to emails
or academic alerts
You utilize small group discussion in your classes, but
you often hear the students discussing anything but
the material. Your response is to:
1. Re-evaluate whether to use
small group discussions.
2. Make the discussion times
more structured by assigning
roles (timer, scribe, etc.)
3. Allow students to discuss
whatever they want; it is their
grade on the line.
4. Require each group to report
to the class or instructor the
results of the discussion.
5. Join their discussion.
Alternate solutions from tables:
• Assign point value to discussion
findings
• Review how you are using group
discussions
• Remind groups to stay on task
• Reassign group members
Although most students are hesitant to speak out in your
class, Laura will answer every question and pose many of her
own if allowed. What do you do to get others involved?
1. After class, recruit Laura to help
you engage the rest of the class.
2. Ask other students to respond
to Laura’s questions.
3. Pair students together, have
them discuss the answer and
then offer it to class.
4. Wait a longer time before calling
on anyone to answer – even if
the silence seems deafening.
5. Be thankful for Laura -- at least
one person is participating!
Alternate solutions from tables:
• Encourage others to engage
unless there’s an adverse
reaction of other students
toward Laura
• Ask Laura to teach or lead a
discussion in a class section
• Ask other students by name to
answer questions
• Put Laura on “answer
probation”
• Instructor should have a
discussion with Laura outside
of class
Despite your best efforts at explaining the material, you can
tell that some students still aren’t getting it and you feel
yourself getting frustrated. How do you handle it?
1. Set up a help session at an
alternate time.
2. Ask a student who “gets it” to
try to explain the material to
the class.
3. Send out a note to the class
with further resources.
4. Re-examine how you deliver
the content that’s causing
difficulties and see if other
teaching strategies might help.
5. Do nothing.
Alternate solutions/observations from
the tables:
• Find something physical to demo
• Set up an office visit if it is just one
or two not understanding
• Try restating and presenting new
problems
• Clickers can help instructor know if
students are getting material
• Observation: Rapport of instructor
with class is essential for #2 to
work
It’s getting close to St. Pat’s break (or Spring Break)
and with 20 minutes left in your class, you know you
have lost them. What do you do?
1. Give a quiz.
2. Use the last few minutes to
review/take questions about an
upcoming test.
3. Plan to do problem-solving
rather than lecturing at this
time of the semester.
4. Use a case study or hands-on
activity to engage students.
5. Dismiss class early.
Alternate solutions from tables:
• Create an active classroom to
avoid this situation arising
• Change is important – do
something different
• Reward at the end, such as an
educational YouTube video
You stop mid-lecture every class to ask if there are questions.
There seldom are, although some students are struggling.
How do you get students to ask questions?
1. Silence ... sooner or later a
Alternate solutions from tables:
student will ask a question.
• Read a quote from the reading
to get discussion under way
2. Just move on so you can get
• Use clickers to get students to
through the material.
discuss the answers to
questions
3. Stop for questions every 10-15
minutes to allow students to
process smaller chunks of
information.
4. Have them ask each other
questions, and then offer up
their partner’s question.
5. Make eye contact.
You are trying to set up a policy that will discourage those
who always have excuses for late work but still not penalize
those with bona-fide issues. What should you do?
1. Have a zero late policy but
allow students to drop their
lowest grade.
2. Accept late homework for
reasons you deem valid on a
case-by-case basis.
3. Give students some leeway by
allowing for two late
assignments (with specific
deadlines).
4. Always accept late homework
but give less credit.
Despite explaining requirements for the first assignment in
your syllabus and in class, you still get questions from
students who don’t know what to do. The solution?
1. Refuse to answer questions that
are addressed in the syllabus.
2. Ignore specific queries but send
an email to the entire class
addressing the issue.
3. Ask the students with questions
to show you what they have
done so far on the assignment.
4. Open up a thread on a
Blackboard discussion board and
have their classmates answer
their questions.
Alternate solutions from the
tables:
• Open up the question to the
class and have students ask
their peers
• Answer on the class website –
which can also be of help to
the next class
A few open laptops in your large lecture class (ostensibly for
note-taking) are becoming more and more distracting. What
do you do?
1. Institute a new policy banning
all electronic devices, except
for students with a
documented need.
2. Take an informal survey to ask
the class about whether laptop
screens distract them; use that
data as peer pressure on the
laptop users.
3. Require students to show you
the notes they took.
4. Carry on as usual.
Alternate solutions/observations from
tables:
• Require hand note-taking (share
research that shows that laptop
note-taking does not necessarily
help students learn)
• Have students write with pen and
paper for the first 20 minutes of
class in comparison to using laptop
for note-taking; have students use
the results of this exercise in a
required paper
• Observation: Is there a double
standard? Faculty use laptops in
meetings and seminars but students
aren’t allowed to use in some
classrooms